PJ Media: ObamaCare Could be Driving People to Drink, Study Finds

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Do you want a case of vodka with your ObamaCare this year? Or perhaps a barrel of brandy?

More people do than used to be the case, and it ain’t pretty.

Only a few years into the Obama’s signature healthcare law, also known as the Affordable Care Act, and more Americans have taken to the bottle, according to new research. Read more here.

Photo by Giovanna Gomes on Unsplash

Korn Ferry: The To-Do List of London’s Newest Finance Leader

It has been an attention-grabbing scenario at one of the world's most visible financial institutions. Now the London Stock Exchange is getting a new leader who will face a host of challenges. 

Experts say industry disruptions like the ones facing David Schwimmer, the 49-year-old Goldman Sachs alumnus and soon-to-be CEO, are never easy, and will only become harder given the broader competition financial exchanges are facing across the globe. Indeed, few exchanges today have a lock on business the way they once did, and in the UK, the shadow of Brexit is never very far away from any financial institution. Read more here.

Korn Ferry: Your Next Corporate Benefit, Yoga Class

It’s been a great year at Company X, and already there are rumors it’s preparing to offer workers a host of new benefits. Will it be more vacations days? Changes in retirement plans? Actually, it might be stress reduction programs.

According to a recent joint study by Korn Ferry and the human resources organization WorldatWork, companies are going all-in to help workers lead healthier—and presumably longer—lives. Two out of three employers offer stress reduction programs that include yoga and massage, a jump from just over half in the year before. Telemedicine is making huge inroads, too: Three-quarters of those companies offer the service, allowing workers to access healthcare professionals by phone. Read more here.

Barron's: How to Play Iran Sanctions and $80 Crude

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Crude-Oil prices are set to jump because—contrary to popular belief—President Donald Trump is likely to reintroduce harsh sanctions on Iran by mid-May. Read more here.

Forbes: Is Economics Going Back To The 1800s? Maybe So

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Some economics thinking seems to have gone backward in time. How far back? At least as far as the nineteenth century.

That's the observation of  Robert Wright, professor of political economy at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He's also an eminent economic historian.

He sees the resurgence of three economic ideas that were more at home in the 1800s than in the twenty-first century. Read more here.

Internet Archive Book Images, 

No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes: Iran's Futile Gesture Mirrors Venezuela's Economic Idiocy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Iran's leaders seem to have contracted a case of economic idiocy.

Let's hope it's not infectious.

Mid-April, the Islamic Republic announced it would start to denominate its holdings of official assets in euros instead of U.S. dollars.

The news comes during a period of fast-deteriorating diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, which makes the currency denomination change look like a way for the Iranian leadership to snub the U.S.

Unfortunately, for people of Iran, the decision would seem to be both futile in the near term and one that would auger yet more pain for the already beleaguered economy in the future. Read more here.

Mentioned in the Press: The Columbian

In Our View: Trump Trips on Trade

Read more here.

Forbes: Finally, A Boss Gets The Message On Social Media

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A captain of industry in Britain has done something both smart and courageous.

He has decided to shutter the company's social media accounts for all of its hundreds of outlets. It is something that other business leaders should consider doing too! Read more here.

P.J. Media: Oxycontin Tweak Helped Turn Addicts to Heroin

By SIMON CONSTABLE

 Lawmakers trying to combat the epidemic of opioid addiction might want to take note of the law of unintended consequences.

It can lead to the most unfortunate results.

A case in point is getting prescription painkillers off the streets might not have the effect of reducing addiction deaths. It might instead merely move the problem. At least that's the finding of some recently published research from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Read more here.

Barron's: Oil Prices Haven’t Peaked Yet

By SIMON CONSTABLE

They Said What? Read more here.

PJ Media: Food Stamp Cuts Would Bite Into States That Voted for Trump

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Republicans may have a problem taking a bite out of the food stamp program.

The matter comes down to two things. First, the states with the highest portion of food stamp recipients overwhelmingly voted for the GOP in the last election. Second, any cuts to the program will no doubt be portrayed by Democrats as “hating everyone.”

While it may be possible to streamline the program, those in Congress will need to navigate a complicated political minefield. Read more here.

Forbes: Don't Conflate Tariffs With Sanctions, They're Quite Different

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Not even close. To think so, would be to equate legal products such as beer with illicit drugs such as heroin.

Neither does the increase in some tariffs mean we are in a trade war. To think that, then you'd have to believe a lover's tiff is equivalent to dropping 1,000 tons of napalm on a village. It isn't of course. Read more here.

WSJ: What Is Halal Investing?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Many people understand what halal food is—meals allowed under Islamic dietary laws. Halal is Arabic for “permissible.”

But what about halal investing? Read more here.

Elekes Andor, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Barron's: Corn Prices as High as an Elephant’s Eye?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

THE PRICE OF CORN COULD SOAR TO $8 A BUSHEL, A LEVEL NOT SEEN SINCE 2012, and more than double last Thursday’s closing price of $3.895. 

An unusual confluence of factors could propel prices higher over the next couple of years. These include declining output, an ethanol-led demand surge in China, and likely brutal weather. “Eight dollars is very possible,” says Shawn Hackett, author of the Hackett Money Flow Report newsletter, who adds that declining supplies will run headlong into increased Chinese demand. 

Traders wanting to profit from the rally should consider buying futures for July 2019 delivery. Note: The trading volume of such long-dated futures is significantly lower than for front-month contracts, which makes trading more expensive. Alternatively, consider the Teucrium Corn exchange-traded fund (ticker: CORN), which tracks corn futures.  Read more here.

Forbes: How To Help Colleagues Suffering Mental Illness

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The chances are high you'll eventually end up working with people who battle mental illness.

One-in-five adults get afflicted annually, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI.) So even if you haven't worked with someone who suffers depression or similar, sooner or later you will. For many folks in the buttoned-up corporate world, that's a frightening thought, probably because they have no idea what it means.

Still, it behooves us all to understand better our colleagues who sometimes get sick in this way. Understanding goes a long way.

How can you learn about it without visiting the psych ward?  You could do far worse than read the recently published Walk A Mile: Tales of a Wandering Loon by Chris Young. Read more here.

Korn Ferry Institute: A Change of Tune for IPOs?

The leaders at Spotify thought something as basic as listening to music could be successfully turned on its head. This week they’re seeing if a process that’s a little more complex, selling shares to investors, could also be altered.

The world’s largest streaming music service has its initial public stock offering, or IPO, on Tuesday. But instead of having the sale managed by investment bankers—which is what nearly every large firm does when it first goes public—Spotify is selling its shares directly to investors. If the IPO goes well (its shares opened at $165.90 each, well above the offering price) it could make the company worth about $30 billion while saving the company millions in Wall Street fees. Plus, a successful direct-to-investor IPO could convince other private firms to go down the same route. “We have technology disrupting every single thing we do in life, and this IPO is a metaphor as to how Wall Street needs to adapt,” says Noah Schwarz, senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Financial Services practice. Read more here.

Forbes: The Facts About Food Stamp Fraud

By SIMON CONSTABLE

There's too much misinformation about the U.S. government's food stamp scheme.

So after some investigation, here are some facts about the benefit which is also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, (SNAP.)

The takeaway is that food stamp fraud ballooned during the four years through 2016. Read more here.